Yes, we need one. A simple one.

A set of extendible recipes (or scriptlets) to gather a set of information and guide the user in what to gather. See below for some examples (mock-up). The tool may ship with let's say 50-200 of them and they consist of four things: title, category, description, what/how to gather.

musts

• Finding the right recipe(s) should work much like Synapse (image) or the HUD (image).

• Use tools already available to do this job. E.g. Apport, as suggested by rafalcieslak.

• A little bit of heuristic to ease the use. For example, don't even show a "save to file" button if it's connected to the internet and vice versa.

• Basic integration with AU if internet connected. Upload button for large amounts, copy/paste Markdown for small amounts.

• If offline, automatically find a flashdrive to save a file onto. Explain the user to open the file and copy-paste into AU post on another machine. Please use Windows linebreaks(or ask what kind of system they have) in the file so copying from a Windows machine doesn't turn into a giant blob.

• We maintain the set of recipes/scriptlets in the community and we can accept pull requests for improvements/additions. (see also could-have online database below)

dont's

mock-up

A very rough idea of what's in my head, mocked up quickly, should look a lot nicer after some UI designer created nice graphics:

Note (not yet drawn): the description of the recipe selected should be shown in the middle (now below the search suggestion box) along with a button "Yes, this one!", which will add it to the list on the right.

Yes, we should have one. A simple one.

A set of extendible recipes (or scriptlets) to gather a set of information and guide the user in what to gather. See below for some examples (mock-up). The tool may ship with let's say 50-200 common ones and they consist of four things: title, category, description, what/how to gather.

mock-up

A very rough idea of what's in my head, mocked up quickly, should look a lot nicer after some UI designer created nice graphics:

Note (not yet drawn): the description of the recipe selected should be shown in the middle (now below the search suggestion box) along with a button "Yes, this one!", which will add it to the list on the right.

musts

• Finding the right recipe(s) should work much like Synapse (image) or the HUD (image).

• Use tools already available to do this job. E.g. Apport, as suggested by rafalcieslak.

• A little bit of heuristic to ease the use. For example, don't even show a "save to file" button if it's connected to the internet and vice versa.

• Basic integration with AU if internet connected. Upload button for large amounts, copy/paste Markdown for small amounts.

• Ability to guide the user in transferring the output via a flash drive to another computer in case he's not connected. This includes cross-platform awareness (e.g. CRLF-line-endings) as the user might only have Windows to boot with an internet connection.

• We maintain the set of recipes/scriptlets in the community and we can accept pull requests for improvements/additions. (see also could-have online database below)

don'ts

Some of the above don'ts explain some key differences between my idea and George Edison's idea.

• Finding the right recipe(s) should work much like Synapse (image) or the HUD (image).

• Use tools already available to do this job. E.g. Apport, as suggested by rafalcieslak.

• A little bit of heuristic to ease the use. For example, don't even show a "save to file" button if it's connected to the internet and vice versa.

• Basic integration with AU if internet connected. Upload button for large amounts, copy/paste Markdown for small amounts.

• If offline, automatically find a flashdrive to save a file onto. Explain the user to open the file and copy-paste into AU post on another machine. Please use Windows linebreaks(or ask what kind of system they have) in the file so copying from a Windows machine doesn't turn into a giant blob.

• We maintain the set of recipes/scriptlets in the community and we can accept pull requests for improvements/additions.

coulds

• Hint some possible relevant recipes based on the selection of one or more.

• Translations for the descriptions.

• Minimal bootable CD that can chroot into existing installation.

• "Hi there, what's your issue about?" it's not about issues
• Trying to write code that would save braintime and outsmart humans. People are way smarter to see what's going on. Don't try to fit this heuristics in this tool, please. I want to vote for good answers, rather!
• Dependencies on stuff unavailable desktop images of all supported releases. No shiny new Qt5 stuff, please! That would make it huge if we would need to ship it with it.
• Gathering more information than requested. This will have the opposite result: taking a lot of time going through all the output.
• Allowing remote access tool. security concerns
• Touching the system. even no to harmless changes
• Attempt to extend a current tool. This is confusing "yes, I started it, but I don't see this button" "you need to install this plugin first...".

• Finding the right recipe(s) should work much like Synapse (image) or the HUD (image).

• Use tools already available to do this job. E.g. Apport, as suggested by rafalcieslak.

• A little bit of heuristic to ease the use. For example, don't even show a "save to file" button if it's connected to the internet and vice versa.

• Basic integration with AU if internet connected. Upload button for large amounts, copy/paste Markdown for small amounts.

• If offline, automatically find a flashdrive to save a file onto. Explain the user to open the file and copy-paste into AU post on another machine. Please use Windows linebreaks(or ask what kind of system they have) in the file so copying from a Windows machine doesn't turn into a giant blob.

• We maintain the set of recipes/scriptlets in the community and we can accept pull requests for improvements/additions. (see also could-have online database below)

coulds / future ideas

• Hint some possible relevant recipes based on the selection of one or more.

• Translations for the descriptions.

• Minimal bootable CD that can chroot into existing installation.

• An online database with some more and possibly updated bunch of recipes, GPG-signed by multiple trusted members making sure the commands are harmless, safe and useful. Public keys hardcoded into the tool.

• Custom URI schema to use in the comments to ease the user finding the right recipe. It could also be used to specify arguments to the recipe (escaped properly - security concers here!) E.g. ausysinfo://recipe/a123/eth0 to run ip addr list eth0.

• Unfoldable embedded terminal to show the user what is going on in the background, for example: screenshot of system update. This serves both the learning aspects as well as the transparency we need.

• "Hi there, what's your issue about?" it's not about issues
• Trying to write code that would save braintime and outsmart humans. People are way smarter to see what's going on. Don't try to fit this heuristics in this tool, please. I want to vote for good answers, rather!
• Dependencies on stuff unavailable desktop images of all supported releases. No shiny new Qt5 stuff, please! That would make it huge if we would need to ship it with it.
• Gathering more information than requested. This will have the opposite result: taking a lot of time going through all the output.
• Running arbitrary commands automated (e.g. fetching commands from comments). Big no-no to shell injection threats!
• Allowing remote access tool. security concerns
• Touching the system. even no to harmless changes
• Attempt to extend a current tool. This is confusing "yes, I started it, but I don't see this button" "you need to install this plugin first...".
• Attempt to include all possible commands we would like them to run. Instead of focussing on the numbers, it should focus on quality of the most common ones. Also, if it covers 90% of the now terminal-tasks, that's already very powerful. Aiming for the 99% is not what I have in mind - would be too hard.

• Finding the right recipe(s) should work much like Synapse (image) or the HUD (image).

• Use tools already available to do this job. E.g. Apport, as suggested by rafalcieslak.

• A little bit of heuristic to ease the use. For example, don't even show a "save to file" button if it's connected to the internet and vice versa.

• Basic integration with AU if internet connected. Upload button for large amounts, copy/paste Markdown for small amounts.

• We maintain the set of recipes/scriptlets in the community and we can accept pull requests for improvements/additions.

• Hint some possible relevant recipes based on the selection of one or more.

• Translations for the descriptions.

• Finding the right recipe(s) should work much like Synapse (image) or the HUD (image).

• Use tools already available to do this job. E.g. Apport, as suggested by rafalcieslak.

• A little bit of heuristic to ease the use. For example, don't even show a "save to file" button if it's connected to the internet and vice versa.

• Basic integration with AU if internet connected. Upload button for large amounts, copy/paste Markdown for small amounts.

• If offline, automatically find a flashdrive to save a file onto. Explain the user to open the file and copy-paste into AU post on another machine. Please use Windows linebreaks(or ask what kind of system they have) in the file so copying from a Windows machine doesn't turn into a giant blob.

• We maintain the set of recipes/scriptlets in the community and we can accept pull requests for improvements/additions.

• Hint some possible relevant recipes based on the selection of one or more.

• Translations for the descriptions.

• Minimal bootable CD that can chroot into existing installation.